Charity Commission Questions Christian Group over Anti-Gay Adoption Card

KENILWORTH, 15 DECEMBER 2002 — The Charity Commission for England and Wales is to investigate a Christian group that issued a card reading “In the event of my death I do not want my children to be adopted by homosexuals.”

The move comes after a complaint from the Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association (GALHA) which objected to the Christian Institute using money raised through its tax-exempt charitable status to promote bigotry.

Writing to the Charity Commission, GALHA Secretary George Broadhead said: “We fail to see how the issuing of such a card, riddled with prejudice and discriminatory in its intent, can be described as charitable. We would like you to inform us whether the publication of such material by a charity that gains its status from the fact that it is supposedly a religious body is within the rules.”

The Charity Commission has responded by saying that although it recognises that a religious charity can articulate a view consistent with “its understanding of the teachings of the Bible”, it has contacted the Christian Institute about the matter and requested a copy of the “adoption card” in question.

George Broadhead commented: “We hope that this intervention by the Charity Commission will make the Christian Institute more circumspect about indulging in such bigoted excesses in the future.”